FS700 White Balance - Am I missing something?

C

cameraoperatorsydney

Active member
Hi All,

I'm having trouble working out the white balance setup on the FS700. I come from an XDCAM background where you set the white balance and you get a read out of what it is (daylight around 56k etc)

On the FS700 i can dial in the white balance to what i think it roughly is but I find I get a muddy / greenish tone to the colour (especially when indoors / fluro. When i do a manual white balance with the camera onto a white card or whatever I find the white balance is great. Although i don't get a read out of the WB number, i can live with that if it looks correct.

The problem is... This white balance that i set from a white card doesn't stay... It's on some auto setting where it changes the camera white balance when the scene light changes... not cool!

I have looked through the menu trying to find some 'auto white balance trace' or something to turn off but i can't find. I'm hoping im just missing something as at the moment i'm stuck between manually dialing in or setting a nice white balance with a white card only to have it change slowly over time.

Any help, appreciated.

Thank you

Paul
 
I know myself and some others have mentioned difficulties with white balance on the FS700 when done manually. Using a card works great in the daytime, but for any Tungsten lights it's always green so I have to manually dial it in.

Also, it seems impossible to white balance with S-Log. When I snap the card, I just get an error message so I have to switch to Cine 1, do the manual white balance or just turn the wheel.

But you problem of the white balance shifting is weird. I've never had that happen. Are you sure it's not on Auto-White balance?
 
cameraoperatorsydney said:
Hi All,

I'm having trouble working out the white balance setup on the FS700. I come from an XDCAM background where you set the white balance and you get a read out of what it is (daylight around 56k etc)

On the FS700 i can dial in the white balance to what i think it roughly is but I find I get a muddy / greenish tone to the colour (especially when indoors / fluro. When i do a manual white balance with the camera onto a white card or whatever I find the white balance is great. Although i don't get a read out of the WB number, i can live with that if it looks correct.

The problem is... This white balance that i set from a white card doesn't stay... It's on some auto setting where it changes the camera white balance when the scene light changes... not cool!

I have looked through the menu trying to find some 'auto white balance trace' or something to turn off but i can't find. I'm hoping im just missing something as at the moment i'm stuck between manually dialing in or setting a nice white balance with a white card only to have it change slowly over time.

Any help, appreciated.

Thank you

Paul
Click to expand...

Paul!
1. Did you turn the main knob for "AUTO-MANUAL" SETTINGS on your FS-700 into MANUAL position?

2. When you ready to set up WB did you CHECK your EXPOSURE level on histogram ? It must be almost perfect.. if you want to get CORRECT WB !

3. When you push a little WB knob on camera - did you watch your result on LCD-screen? ... number appear ONLY for 2-3 seconds, so you better keep looking on it :)
 
gene_can_sing said:
I know myself and some others have mentioned difficulties with white balance on the FS700 when done manually. Using a card works great in the daytime, but for any Tungsten lights it's always green so I have to manually dial it in.

Also, it seems impossible to white balance with S-Log. When I snap the card, I just get an error message so I have to switch to Cine 1, do the manual white balance or just turn the wheel.

But you problem of the white balance shifting is weird. I've never had that happen. Are you sure it's not on Auto-White balance?
Click to expand...

I don't know WHY so many people have a problem with WB on FS-700?? ... RTFM!!! I post this just a couple days ago!! ..>

I wonder why you get into problem.. I had not so good color with FS-100, but since I've got FS-700 WB / COLOR is so much BETTER and I get is almost perfect :

Scr_02.jpg



Coloring_2s.jpg



SirCharles_01.jpg



SirCharles_03.jpg


and getting after 4K update and with Slog-2 even better:

4KUpdate_06.jpg


... to get it perfect you must to set exposure very precise and than use the set of white balance cards... I have this set of "White", "Warm-1", "Warm-2", "Warm-3", "Gray", "Cool-1", "Cool-2" and "Minus Green" cards very ofter,

when I shoot uder tungsten light I use "Warm-1" or "Warm-2" card instead of "White" card.. if you would like to print that cards I can give it to anyone :)

--> http://www.sergecinema.com/temp/cool.tif and http://www.sergecinema.com/temp/warm.tif

.. that is a TIFF files, so when you print them on simple inkjet printer it's good... than you cut them and save in small package ... :)
 
SergeSmArt said:
Paul!
1. Did you turn the main knob for "AUTO-MANUAL" SETTINGS on your FS-700 into MANUAL position?

2. When you ready to set up WB did you CHECK your EXPOSURE level on histogram ? It must be almost perfect.. if you want to get CORRECT WB !

3. When you push a little WB knob on camera - did you watch your result on LCD-screen? ... number appear ONLY for 2-3 seconds, so you better keep looking on it :)
Click to expand...


Hi SergeSmArt,


Yep, main switch on the side of the camera ( is set to manual.one below the sony logo) is set to manual.

Yep, Exposure is fine. I am happy with the colour i get from doing a white card balance, I think it looks great. Where are you seeing the number appear for only 2-3 seconds? The way i see it is when i press the 'WHT BAL' button it either does a camera white balance based on what it see's (these balances are 99% correct and i'm happy with them) But it doesn't show any numbers anywhere??? Or when i press the 'WHT BAL' button again it goes into manual white balance mode where it displays the degrees kelvin number at the bottom right. If i want to dial in a number is just then press that little logo next to the scroll dial.

The clarify, the problem i have is not the quality of the white balances that i'm getting on the FS700 (like some replies have suggested) it's the fact that the camera's white card balance changes and reacts to the environment without me telling it too... Im pretty sure i have some sort of auto white tracing / shifting.

Example: I just did a balance here where im writing this... GREAT, nice colours, etc and im happy... Then if i put my hand half way over the lens the white balance changes as it's seeing a lot of pink / white tones from my hand, when i remove my hand away the scene's colour balance has changed to a ridiculous blue without me changing any white balance settings what so ever.

Hope this makes sense? I've looked through the menu's and can't find anything... & the camera is set t manual on the main dial...

Cheers

Paul
 
Ok Solved it!

After a bit of messing around I realised that I was actually turning on the auto white balance instead of doing an actual white balance when focused on a white card.

I knew it was doing an auto white balance somewhere just didn't know how to turn it off. Thanks very much for your help everyone.

Just to say it again. I'm not unhappy with the colours I get from a white card balance on the FS700, i think they look great. I just find it hard to get a nice colour when dialing in kelvin on the dial.

Thanks

Paul
 
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